The Past We Never Knew
by ninjaturtlefinatic
Summary: A look into the lives and relationships of the previous Elemental Masters, the ninja's parents. Before destiny decided it had other plans. Rated T because I'm paranoid.
1. Ray and Maya

**Hey y'all!**

**This is a story I came up with that I've been wanting to write for a while. It's basically a look into the previous elemental masters' lives, before their kids were born and their relationships with each other. And my idea as to what happened with our lightning mom. I tried to go along with the timeline as best I could but let me tell you it is very hard to break down Ninjago's timeline and have it make sense. **

**Each Master will have their own chapter with the exception of Ray and Maya and Misako and Garmadon. The order I'm going with will be: 1) Ray and Maya, 2) Jay's mom, 3) Cole's mom, 4) Previous EM o/ Ice, 5) Misako and Garmadon, and finally 6) Wu.**

**And yes I am well aware I already have a fic I need to be working on but I just had to get this one out.**

**I do hope y'all enjoy! If you do, please leave a quick review, it gives me motivation to keep writing.**

**I don't own Ninjago**

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Ray and Maya were perfect for each other.

They were both young, both barely in their 20s when they first met.

Polar opposites, yet the perfect team.

Maya was calm, cool, and collected. Strong-willed, speaking her mind, yet always thinking things through and keeping a level head.

But Ray was brash, hot-headed, loud, and ambitious, rushing into situations before thinking.

While at first glance, it would seem the two would never get along, based on their personality clashes, but they ended up being the best of friends, hitting it off from the very start. It was no surprise at all to Wu, or the rest of the Elemental Alliance, when they finally tied the knot.

Both had an incredible talent at blacksmithing.

They were easily Wu and Garmadon's closest friends and most trusted allies.

Wu even entrusted the map of the Golden Weapons to Ray, when his brother's decent to darkness was complete.

Their talented blacksmith work was the main factor in the defeat of Krux and Acronix.

The Masters of Fire and Water fought bravely with honor in the Serpentine War, the battle with Krux and Acronix, and protected the realm of Ninjago with their team for years.

They fought alongside many other elemental masters, descendants of the protectors of the First Spinjitzu Master, with special, unique powers like their own. Masters of Creation, Destruction, Earth, Lightning, Ice, Sound, Shadow, Time, Mind, and Gravity. Creating a bond with each other so strong, they dared call themselves family.

Even though the Serpentine Wars nearly tore them apart, they rekindled their Alliance, if only for a few years, after the misunderstanding with Chen and the Anacondrai was cleared.

Ray and Maya were brave, dedicated fighters, who vowed to protect Ninjago above anything else.

That was, of course, until they had their first child.

A little over 20 years after the battle with Krux and Acronix, the couple now in their 40s, Maya announced to her teammates, her family, as soon as she got the news. Her friends couldn't be more happy for her.

When Kai was born, everyone, especially the new parents, were so thrilled and so happy. He looked just like Ray, only with brown hair and faint freckles. There was much discussion on who's element the child would inherit. Ray's fire, or Maya's water? But only a month after Kai was born, and Ray's elemental power became nonexistent, they knew their answer. Ray couldn't have been more proud.

Ray and Maya weren't the first masters to have a child. The Master of Earth, one of their closest friends, had given birth to her first child, a son, only a couple months prior. The Masters of Mind, Shadow, Sound, and Gravity, had children in their late teens and early twenties, already teaching them how to properly control their elements and to one day, unlock their true potentials and fight for Ninjago.

By the time Maya was pregnant with her second child, two years after their first, the Elemental Alliance was hanging by a thread.

After Krux and Acronix betrayed them, others started to have doubts about each other's loyalty.

And finally, years after the Time Twins' betrayal, the Masters of Mind, Shadow, Gravity, and Sound left the Alliance, completely cutting off contact.

The only members who stayed in touch with Ray and Maya were Wu, Garmadon, and the Masters of Ice, Lightning, and Earth. Nicholaus, Libby, and Terra.

Nya, a baby girl, was born to Ray and Maya afterward. The day Maya lost her powers was the best day of her life.

Libby gave birth to her baby boy a little less than a year before Ray and Maya had Nya, and Terra had her little boy just before Kai was born. Nicolaus never married himself, but he was always supportive of the families and their children.

The few Elemental Masters of the Alliance left remained a close family, getting together often, talking and fantasizing about how great fighters their kids would be someday. They celebrated many things together, such as Misako and Garmadon's engagement and eventual wedding.

They were the perfect family with the perfect life.

Until everything went horribly wrong.

Libby went missing. Gone with no explination, no evidence, no trace whatsoever, leaving a distraught husband and a one month old boy behind. The widower cut his connection with the others and gave their child up for adoption after her case ran cold.

Terra, Libby's best friend, was devastated. She went back home to her husband and 15 month old son, and lost touch with the rest of the Alliance.

Nicolaus grew old, too old to fight, and became gravely ill. He said his solemn goodbyes, and went off on a, _'Very important journey for the next generation of Elemental Masters.'_

They never saw him again.

Then remained Wu, Garmadon, Misako, Ray, and Maya.

Four years after Libby went missing and communication with Terra and Nicolaus was lost, Misako and Garmadon had a child. A beautiful little boy with shiny blond hair. Very small, three weeks premature, but he was all the couple could ever ask for.

Not long after their son turned three months, Garmadon's decent to darkness was complete, and he was banished to the Under World. Misako left soon after, unable to process the truth, taking her son and leaving Ray, Maya, and Wu behind.

Then there were three. They continued to keep in touch.

A few months later, when Kai had turned five and Nya barely three, Ray and Maya were visited by a kind man, by the name of Dr. Sander Saunders. They invited him in for tea, he was a wary traveler, exploring Ninjago.

At least that's what they thought.

When he revealed himself to be Krux, he forced them to come with him, threatening Kai and Nya's safety if they didn't.

Ray and Maya left behind two young children, forcing Kai to raise himself, and his little sister on his own. During their 13 year imprisonment, the previous Masters of Fire and Water could only hope and pray, that Wu would fulfill his promise to look after their children, when they couldn't.


	2. Libber

**Lightning mom's turn!**

**This is my personal head canon/idea as to what happened to Jay's mom.**

**I don't own Ninjago**

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Libber, or Libby, as she liked to be called, was beautiful, inside and out.

She had long, blonde, wavy hair, was short and had faint freckles. Her smile could chase the frown off your face in seconds. Her heart was pure and she believed in everybody.

She embodied the element of lightning perfectly. She was known for her random bursts of banter, able to talk everyone's ears off in a matter of seconds.

She was an extremely talented fighter, and she did all she could for Ninjago and the Alliance. She made some really great friends in the Alliance, and became apart of a family, happily and openly treating everyone as such. She even met her best friend in the whole wide world, Terra, the Master of Earth. Those two were inseparable.

She had a great sense of humor, always making people laugh, and the mood in the room would immediately brighten when she walked in.

She was young, a good four years younger then the next older master, but that didn't stop her.

It's no wonder Cliff Gordan fell for her the moment he first saw her.

He met her in the line of fire. She saved him from a falling piece of debris. Cliff knew, at that moment, that this was the girl he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

They bumped to each other lots of times after that, in the market, out in the street, and even while she was fighting (which Cliff had absolutely nothing to do with), but eventually, after four months of "accidentally" running into her, Cliff finally asked her to go out with him.

She very excitedly accepted.

The two hit it off on the first date.

They complemented each other perfectly. Her humor kept him sane, and his determination kept her focused.

Cliff was an aspiring actor, still struggling to get started and book gigs. But Libby didn't care, she supported his dreams 100%.

And Cliff supported her when she had to leave for battle. It was hard, having to be away from each other for so long, but they worked through it.

Two years of dating later, right after the Serpentine War, he proposed.

Libby was ecstatic. She said yes.

While managing her relationship, Libby fought alongside the elemental masters, her family, with pride. She trained under Wu and Garmadon, like the rest of the Masters. She helped defeat the Time Twins and fought in the Serpentine War.

She and Cliff were just about to go on their honeymoon before the Time Twins betrayed the Alliance and she had to go fight again. When the Time Twins we're defeated, she and Cliff finally got to go.

She supported and helped her friends whenever she could. She gushed over Terra's new little boy, even helping pick the name, Cole. She also helped Maya with her baby, Kai, when he was first born.

She was great with kids, which made it all the more exciting when she revealed she was pregnant a year later than Maya and Terra. She showed off her auburn-haired, baby boy with freckles, Jay, to everyone proudly after he was born. When Cliff heard a scream one morning and, '_My powers are gone, Cliff! Jay's got my lightning! Terra owes me ten bucks!'_

He had never seen her so happy.

But she definitely wasn't happy when half the Alliance decided to quit. She couldn't understand how they could be so close, and then suddenly just, leave.

Only her, Ray, Maya, Wu, Garmadon, Nicolaus, and Terra were left.

She promised to never leave the others. She made them promise to each other that they would always stay close and raise their kids together and teach them to control their elements when the time came. She was so adamant that they all agree, which they did.

Which made it all the more devastating when she went missing.

No one knew what happened or where she went.

She was gone. No note. No clues. No lead. Nothing.

She was home one night, and gone the next morning. Cliff nor the rest of the Alliance knew anything.

There was no sign of a break-in at their small apartment, nothing was missing, nothing moved or out of place.

She was just, gone.

The night she disappeared, there was a huge storm.

Roaring, ear-splitting thunder could be heard all the way across Ninjago. Blinding streaks of lightning danced in the sky. Pouring rain kept on falling.

It was a freak storm.

It couldn't be explained how such a storm came out of absolutely nowhere. But Cliff knew.

Wu and Garmadon, Ray and Maya, Nicolaus, and Terra all knew.

Libby was the cause of that storm.

They just didn't know how, or why.

They were all devastated at their friends' disappearance.

Terra was absolutely crushed. Her best friend was missing. And she didn't have a single clue as to where she went or where she was heading. She left the remaining masters in the Alliance and went back to her husband, Lou and her son, Cole. She couldn't take the stress anymore and needed to spend time with her family. She eventually lost contact with them. She hated herself for breaking the last promise she made to her best friend.

Cliff's career finally took off. He landed the lead role of a upcoming comic book and movie series. The only reason he kept his acting going was because Libby told him to keep following his dreams no matter what.

Well, he had, but she wasn't there to celebrate his big break with him. He bought a real nice house, a mansion, taking advantage of his newly acquired wealth, but he wasn't happy. He lost connection with Wu and the others. He was confused. Libby loved Jay and him, there was no reason Cliff could think of that would make her leave her new family.

By the fourth month of investigation, the police gave up on her case.

Libber Gordan's case had officially run cold.

There were no leads, no directions, literally nothing to go off of. They just brushed the whole situation off, saying that she probably just didn't want a family or a child and couldn't face Cliff to tell him.

Cliff shot that theory down immediately.

He knew his Libby.

All she ever talked about was having a kid and starting a family. She picked their baby's name, Jay, saying she's always liked the name. And she would _never _do anything like this by her own choice.

She loved Jay too much.

After the fifth month had gone by since Libby's disappearance, Cliff was a mess. He couldn't take care of Jay. He could barely take care of himself.

He wasn't suited to raise a child on his own. He couldn't do it.

He never knew what Jay wanted. He cried all the time, he fussed. He didn't have anywhere to leave him when he had auditions.

Cliff couldn't take it.

He made a decision to give Jay up for adoption. He just couldn't take care of their child in his own. He consulted Wu about the situation, who heavily discouraged it, but he couldn't convince the new father otherwise.

Cliff decided he would leave him with a very sweet, older couple in their 50s, Ed and Edna Walker, he'd become good friends with. He'd actually met them when he saw Libby for the second him at the market. He'd gotten to know them quite well, they mentioned they couldn't have any children of their own, but so desperately wanted one. They owned a junkyard in the middle of the Sea of Sand. Cliff knew Jay would have a much better life with Ed and Edna than with him.

Before Cliff cut off contact completely and dropped Jay off, he made Wu promise, _'When he's ready, help him become a ninja in her honor.'_

Wu nodded.

Tears were in Cliff's eyes the entire ride to the Walker's. Jay was sleeping soundly in a basket, hugging the blue bear plushie Libby bought, wrapped in a bright blue blanket.

Cliff pulled up to the junkyard. He placed a key to his mansion and a note in the basket that read,

_"He needs a home. A good one. And that's something I can't provide for him right now. Please, take care of him. He has something incredibly special inside him. His name is Jay. He's five months old, born on November 23rd. I'm leaving an address and key, in case there's ever a time he wants to know where he came from. _

_Thank you, C.G."_

As he placed the items in the basket, Jay looked up at him innocently and yawned. He had those dark, sapphire blue eyes, exactly like Libby's. He placed the basket on the doorstep and rang the doorbell. Thunder suddenly echoed and a loud crash of lightning struck in the distance.

Jay started crying, Cliff drove away, crying himself as he heard the door creak open and a soothing voice lulled Jay to sleep.

Cliff had regretted his decision everyday since.

Many times, he wished he would've just kept Jay and raised him for Libby. For 14 years, Cliff would lay awake at night, wondering who his son became, if he knew where he came from, if he knew the great powers he had inside him, if he knew who his parents actually were. He wished Jay could've gotten to know his mom. He wished he would've gotten to know Jay.

But when he turned on the tv one night, and saw the loud, blue-colored ninja, along with three others, dressed in black, red, and white, flash across the screen, 14 years later. And when the painfully recognizable element shot from his fingertips, Cliff knew he'd made the right decision.

He followed Jay's ninja career since he and his team defeated the Great Devourer. He had every news clip of Jay, pictures, and even a replica of the first ninja suit he wore out saving the world.

Cliff couldn't be more proud of his and Libby's son.

And Cliff was sure, that wherever Libby was, she would be so unbelievably proud of their son too.


	3. Terra

**Whoo boy!**

**I did not mean to take such a long break but here we are. I finally got this chapter done and the next is under way. Also the next chapter of TEHWWTF is SO CLOSE to being done, I just need to edit a few things.**

**Thanks to everyone who continues to review, it means alot! **

**Now please enjoy a nice angsty chapter on our rock mom!**

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Terra was as loyal and kind as she was strong.

And considering she was the Master of Earth, she was certainly very strong.

She was the best friend anyone could ever have (Libby could vouch for her). She was sweet, caring, kind, loyal, brave, and so many other things. Deemed as the 'Responsible One' by her family she took the role very seriously. While sometimes coming off as stubborn or hard-headed, in the end she was still a great person and an even greater friend.

She had long dark brown hair, normally worn in a single loose braid, with equally dark eyes. She was very tall, six-foot two, towering over most of the Masters.

Following in her father's footsteps, she trained under Wu and Garmadon and became the next Elemental Master of Earth in line. She fought with honor and dignity and was easily one of the best, most talented fighters in the Alliance.

She stepped in to fight for her father during the Serpentine War when he became too old and sick to fight and she fought against the Time Twins.

She was always dedicated to her work, but after her father passed, she became even more so. All of a sudden she was cold and distant. So focused and driven, committed to training and fighting, almost nothing could shake her attention away.

Which is why it was such a shock to everyone in the Alliance when suddenly, just the mention of Louis Brookstone's name could send Terra's heart fluttering and her mind elsewhere.

It all started when Libby invited her out to see a concert. Libby hated seeing Terra so upset after her father passed, so she surprised her best friend with two front-row tickets to see 'The Royal Blacksmiths,' a fairly new, but quickly rising in fame, barbershop quartet, hoping to give Terra a way to relax.

Terra always had a love for music and the arts, even having quite the singing voice herself, so she was excited, to say the least.

Once the show started and the quartet entered the stage, their eyes met. It was definitely love at first sight.

"Oooo, Terra! Looks like that short one with the mustache likes you!"

Louis got so lost in her deep, dark brown eyes, he immediately fell in love.

Literally.

He tripped off the stage.

Amongst the laughter of the crowd and the embarrassment of his quartet, Terra was the one who helped him up. He couldn't even speak he was so lost in her beauty. He somehow managed to tell her to meet him after the show.

She was waiting for him when he walked off the stage and he hurriedly rushed to meet her. His jaw dropped when he actually got a good look at her. First thing being, she was _tall_, probably a half foot taller than him! But he couldn't bring himself to care. She was gorgeous.

"Thanks for the help earlier. Louis Brookstone, but you can call me, Lou."

"Terra. Nice to meet you, Lou."

They were married within six months.

Even though it hurt that her father couldn't walk her down the aisle, Lou filled that void in her heart.

The Alliance, her family, was so happy to see Terra happy again, especially Libby, who took personal responsibility for them meeting.

Lou actually didn't know she was an Elemental Master until she had to leave during a date to go on a mission. He didn't mind one bit.

After they were married, life never seemed to slow down. They moved into a pretty nice house in a village just a few miles from Jamanakai. Wedding after wedding soon followed theirs, including Ray and Maya's, Libby and Cliff's, and Garmadon and Misako's.

They supported each other through everything. Terra came to every show she could and Lou would always wait up for her at night when she had long missions.

Their life couldn't possibly be more perfect.

Until Terra revealed she was pregnant, and life got even better.

Coleson, Cole, Brookstone was born to the couple a little over twenty years after the Temporal War. He was the best thing to ever happen to the two.

Not long after Cole was born, Ray and Maya had a son, Kai, and about a year after them, Libby and her husband had a son also, Jay. She celebrated with her family when their kids were born and she mourned when half the Alliance quit. She was there for weddings, funerals, and birthdays.

But she wasn't there when Libby went missing.

She had been taking her mandatory leave from the Alliance, home with her family, when she got the message from Wu. She rushed to the Monastery as fast as she could. When she arrived all her friends were there already. Cliff was holding his crying one month-old son and talking to an officer, Ray and Maya, with Kai in tow, were talking to another, and Wu was with Garmadon. She immediately rushed over to Cliff and Jay and embraced the two, frantically asking what had happened. The heart-broken husband cried into her shoulder.

_"She's gone. I-I don't know where she is, or-or what happened... She- Libby never came to bed three days ago and she's been missing since. I-I've asked everyone she knows, I've even tried calling her parents, no one knows anything. I've looked everywhere... she's just gone."_

The night Libby was last seen, a huge storm swept over Ninjago, and Terra knew there was something off about that storm. It was like the one's Libby would create by accident when she was upset. When she vented to Terra about her parents, how her father was a drunk, and her mother hated her for having an element after it skipped two generations before, when she doubted her worth, when her anxiety had gotten the best of her, when nothing in the world was going right.

But Terra had thought everything was going right for Libby.

She had a son that she loved with every ounce of her being. She had a loving husband. And regardless of her parents, she had a family with the Alliance. She was a _ninja_ for FSM's sake.

After two months of searching, most had given up hope. There was nothing to go off of. There were absolutely no leads. She left no clues behind. The possibility of kidnapping was put to the table, but there were no signs of violence or a break-in. Nothing in their small apartment was moved. Nothing out of place. No one else in their apartment complex heard anything either.

After three months of searching, Terra lost hope. She did all she could to help with the investigation and Cliff, babysitting Jay while his father was at the police station most nights, but she just couldn't handle it anymore. Regrettably, she informed Wu, Cliff, and everyone else that she'd be leaving.

Over the years Terra lost touch with the Alliance, and since she never heard anything, she assumed they never found Libby either. But she got to watch her son grow up more every year, and despite the lingering want of being with her old family, their children, and her best friend again, Lou and Cole we're enough for her.

And even though the fights between her two boys grew worse the older Cole became, they were still a family and they still loved each other. She tried her best to support Lou sending Cole to the Marty Oppenheimer School of Performing Arts, even though Cole wanted nothing to do with music and dance.

It was just like back in the Alliance. They sometimes fought but they still loved each other. Everything was going to be okay.

That's what she told herself when she collapsed backstage at one of Lou's performances, what she told Cole when he started panicking, what she told herself when she woke up in a hospital room, Lou and Cole huddled around her, and the doctor telling her they'd found cancerous masses in her lungs, what she continuously told Lou and Cole over the course of the next several months.

Terra bravely fought her battle with cancer for seven months, and oddly enough, she was never scared.

She didn't want to die, obviously. She didn't want to leave her husband and son. She wanted to watch Cole grow, he was only thirteen, with so much life ahead of him, she didn't want to miss that. She wanted to be the one to tell him about the elemental power in his blood, she knew he had her earth when the element left her on Cole's first birthday. Maybe he wouldn't fight as a ninja, but he deserved to know about the power he would make his own.

The fights between Lou and Cole had gotten worse. They could hardly be in the same room with each other anymore. She didn't want to leave them behind. She didn't want to let go of her family.

But despite everything she'd miss and never get to see, she was never scared of dying.

On her worse days she often thought about her old family. Ray, Maya, Libby, Nicolaus, Wu, Garmadon... Their children.

And after seven months of fighting, with Lou and Cole holding her hands, two days before Cole's fourteenth birthday...

Cancer won.

_"Cole, baby. I want you to know how much I love you. No matter if I'm gone, I'll always be with you. A piece of me will always be inside you. Don't cry for me, baby, you know how much I love your smile. Just do me a favor and get along with your dad while I'm gone, okay? I love you, Cole. Smile for me, baby."_


End file.
